Many teens turn to the fast food industry when it’s time for their first summer job, and McDonald’s has found a way to reach this new crop of potential employees.

This week McDonald’s will be releasing a series of 10-second ads on Snapchat, aimed at teens who are looking for summer work. These ads will feature current employees talking about why they love their jobs, with the hope of enticing viewers to become its new batch of hirees. Jez Langhorn, a McDonald’s human resources executive, believes this is the best way to reach their target audience.

“As we see the younger generations seeking out their first jobs, we want to make them aware of the great opportunities available at McDonald’s,” Langhorn said in a statement.

McDonald’s plans on hiring 250,000 seasonal employees for jobs starting this month and ending in August–just in time for the new school year.

Clever advertising and intelligent marketing are just two of the reasons McDonald’s is one of the most ubiquitous companies in the world. It’s no surprise that McDonald’s is using the most popular social media platform with teens to engage them, especially one that comes with a catchy name: Snaplications.

“We thought Snaplications was a great way to allow us to meet job seekers where they are—their phones,” said Langhorn.

While some may say kids would have McDonald’s in their mind anyway, it’s still a very smart way of interacting with today’s teens and young adults. It’s also not entirely new.

McDonald’s began using Snapchat in Australia earlier this year (with positive results), and in keeping up with the online/social stratosphere, it’s looking to engage jobseekers on both Hulu and Spotify.

Job seekers are encouraged to find out more by going to McDonald’s website (via the Snaplication, of course) or any local restaurant.

When most people think of Snapchat, they think of teenagers and college students sexting, right? Well, a new study done by the University of Washington finds that sexting is actually not the main use.

After polling 127 Snapchat users ages 18 and over, 60 percent said they used Snapchat primarily to send “funny content,” and secondly to snap a selfie. Just 14 percent said they’d previously sent sexts over Snapchat, while only 1.6 said they do regularly.

Snapchat is a smartphone app that allows users to send photos for up to 10 seconds that then self-destruct. Users can use filters, type, and draw on the photos. It currently has about 82 million users, most of who are between 13 and 25 years of age, according to Business Insider.

While the sample size is pretty small, the focus of the study was to correct Snapchat stereotypes.

Survey respondents said that the app’s temporary content makes it more fun to share silly or mundane images over Snapchat instead of a text, where pictures are automatically saved. “Snapchat allows for less serious communication,” said one person. Another stated that Snapchat “lets me have more cats in my life because my friends who don’t normally post pictures of their cats on other social media will Snapchat their cats to me.”

While the images do self-destruct, users can take a screenshot of the snap. Snapchat sends users notifications when someone takes a screenshot of their content. However, 5 people admitted to using a separate camera to photograph a message so the user wouldn’t know. I’m not entirely sure how the user would have time to quickly do this, but apparently it can be done.

Apparently someone at Facebook made a pretty big mistake – a new app in the works called “Slingshot” was made available in the app store out on Monday, June 9th. The company told Mashable the app rolled out by mistake. It’s not clear how the app was accidentally launched, but it briefly appear int eh App store and was only available to users in certain countries.

This isn’t the first time an app has launched accidentally. It’s possible that the app launched at midnight to certain countries before they had a chance to fix the date, or someone simply pushed “launch” too early.

“Earlier today, we accidentally released a version of Slingshot, a new app we’re working on,” a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable. “With Slingshot, you’ll be able to share everyday moments with lots of people at once. It’ll be ready soon and we’re excited for you to try it out.”

Facebook is clearly trying to make a Snapchat competitor after Snapchat rejected their buyout offer. Like Snapchat, this app will allow users to send disappearing photos and video messages. The app will also allow users to draw on image before sending them. The difference? In order for the recipient to view the message, they will need to send their own message first.

After opening a message, you can respond with a reaction. Messages will disappear after they are swiped away though it’s not clear whether there is a time limit on how long individual messages can be viewed.

Snapchat was created in 2011 by Stanford University students and is very popular among teenagers and young adults. This app allows users to send pictures or videos that erase after 4-10 seconds of viewing it. Snapchat has continued to grow, and just received a $3 billion cash buyout offer from Facebook – and turned it down. A lot of people are debating whether this is a good decision or not. Snapchat cofounder Evan Spiegel wants to wait until 2014 in hopes of a better valuation for the company, he thinks it will be worth more in the future.

A lot of people are confused by Snapchat – many people wonder why users can’t just send the picture via text messaging. While that is a valid point, many people love how quick and easy Snapchat makes it to send a picture, how you can write and draw on the image, and how it doesn’t clog out your text messages with a bunch pictures.

Sanjay Sabnani, Chairman and CEO of CrowdGather sees a future where Snapchat is worth more, “Imagine a world where your default messaging is comprised of snapchats as a primary means of communication instead of just using text message? I think this is already happening in a way, and this is why I believe that Snapchat still has room to grow and bargain for more money in a sale in the near future.”

A Pew Research Center study released this in late October found that finds that 9% of U.S. cell phone owners use Snapchat, which results in about 26 million Snapchat users in the U.S.

What do you think of the offer? Should they have accepted it or wait for a better one?

If you haven’t already heard of the app Snapchat, then you may want to check it out. Currently people are using this service to send about 200 million snaps a day.

IMG: via Business Insider

Snapchat was created in 2011 by Stanford University students and is very popular among teenagers and young adults. This app allows users to send pictures or videos that erase after 4-10 seconds of viewing it.

This doesn’t mean the picture is gone forever, though. People have been known to receive “private” pictures, screenshot them, and then post them online. While some IOS users were able to be alerted if their picture was saved, that has now been disabled for iPhone users in the new iOS 7 update.

The app recently raised $60 million in funding, the IVP firm said on Monday. They also attracted a very high-profile board member, the Chief Executive of Sony Corp., Michael Lynton.

This app is continuing to attract a lot of attention, what are your thoughts on Snapchat? Do you personally use it yourself?

Social media is always changing. There was a point when Myspace was the coolest thing to teenagers (including myself), and was the only social media out there. Then Facebook came along. Then it was Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, and the list goes on. Today, people can have 10, 20, even 30 social media accounts that they regularly use. Sometimes you have to make accounts before you realize how useless the app or tool is. New social media is always emerging, and here are 3 new tools that are expected to get big:

1) Medium

Like many other social media sites, Medium is a blogging site. The founders describe it as, “A place where you can find and share knowledge, ideas, and stories — specifically, ones that need more than 140 characters and are not just for your friends.” The site favors quality or quantity, which is a breath of fresh air.

To start using Medium, you write a blog post. This will appear on the site’s “collections”, which include pages such as “Airport Stories” and “Advice to New Graduates” on the homepage. After it is posted, users “recommend” posts that they like. Posts with the most recommendations show up more often on the site to other users. Right now anyone can view and vote, but you have to have an invite to actually write for it. It is expected that more people will be able to join later on. Medium was created by Evan Williams and Biz Stone, who also created Twitter and Blogger.

2) Whisper

Whisper is a iPhone app that promises anonymity. To use it, users can post secrets which will appear on the an online postcard. Other people can respond to these postcards with their whispers, messages, or a “heart” on the post. This app is a great place to share secrets and receive responses and advice, without having to share your name. As of 2013, 8 million whispers have been uploaded.

3) Sina Weibo

Sina Weibo is China’s version of Twitter, but has twice as many users as Twitter. A lot of brands and celebrities have embraced the site, such as Tom Cruise and Pizza Hut. While it may not be something you can actually use, Mashable stated that 22 percent of China’s population (1.3 bullion) have an account, which is quite a bit of people.